Spikes

In a genre filled with magic eight-irons and caddies half-Scottish and half-divine, SPIKES stands out. It's elegantly written, funny, literarily and psychologically complex--I think it will be be one of the classic golf novels.

I've never played a stroke of golf (have I even hefted a club?) and I know I can't possibly stake a claim to the game using my minigolf experience: I always did hit the windmill blade as it ratcheted past the mouse hole. But so what? It doesn't matter. You don't need to know golf to enjoy "Spikes." Open yourself up to the good old-fashioned affinal angst which gets Brian going in the morning and let the surely precise mentions... Read Full Review

Michael Griffith has written a real winner here. It helps if you are really into golf, but it is not necessary. A morality tale told in a hilarious way!! There is one scene where the central character, a frustrated guy trying to make it on a fourth rate golf tour for losers who can only dream of the "big tour", meets a TV commentator for dinner after he has misled her into thinking he is the guy who just shot 59. In fact he... Read Full Review

With his dense, allusive voice, the narrator of Michael Griffith's first novel doesn't sound like a stereotypical professional golfer. But that's appropriate, because Brian Schwan doesn't play his sport like a professional golfer either. He never wins, doesn't earn back his tournament fees, and, when in danger of actually competing with other pros, sees his game fall apart even further. Brian's wife is after him to quit... Read Full Review

Michael Griffith's SPIKES, although ostensibly about golf, is about so much more than a game. Brian Schwan, a once promising golfer now scrapping for a win in the minor leagues of golf, poses on a whim as Bird Soulsby, his playing partner who has just shot a record-tying 59. Brian knows he is washed up. His wife Rosa has supported him all these years, but now she wants stability - a child and a full-time husband. Brian's... Read Full Review